Contra Cabal - 709-08-00 - Whores of Aademe - In Memoriam

University of Washington (UW) memorialization of Marsha L. Landolt ranks as the ultimate hypocrisy. UW has again published a major spin consistent with most other announcements they have produced with taxpayer funds. The university must stop the spin and address the issues before any more people lose their jobs at the hands of administrators like Landolt. It must redress the unlawful and illegal practices that she instituted during her term as graduate dean. Several faculty and students will regret her death only because it allowed her to avoid indictment for the alleged crimes that she committed. [Campus Mourns Graduate Dean]

Landolt became dean of the Graduate School and vice provost in 1996. During her term she unlawfully thwarted findings by both the American Civil Liberties Union and Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, to deny civil rights and due process of law. Interim president, Lee L. Huntsman, and associate dean Elizabeth L. Feetham, participated with Landolt in these unlawful acts. Huntsman must now take immediate action to reverse the untold damage that Landolt caused during her term as graduate dean. Her death should not end the pursuit of justice. [Criminal Conspiracy] [Elizabeth's Machination]

One hypocrite, Professor G. Ross Heath, Oceanography, former dean of the college, stated for an obituary: "She [Landolt] would have made a great university president, but elected to stay close to the academic heart of the university." Another, Dean David C. Hodge, College of Arts and Sciences, evidently said: "This past year was an amazing blossoming of her leadership role across the entire campus. Her clear thinking, superb values, and humanity bound many of us together through a time of uncertainty and transition. She was the steady hand, the encouraging voice, that sustained and reaffirmed our commitment to doing the right things for the right reasons.”

Landolt’s victims consider her an unmitigated, administrative whore who consistently compromised principles for personal gain and self-aggrandizement. Both Heath and Hodge must know about her machination as do a large proportion of faculty and students on campus. The reference to Landolt making a “great university president” only underlines her implementation of the irrational and unlawful policies introduced by her mentor Richard L. McCormick.

McCormick, an allegedly drunken lecher who reportedly had an extramarital relationship with a staff member, recently left University of Washington in disgrace to become president of Rutgers University. His wife, Suzanne D. Lebsock, joined him at Rutgers and continues to deny her proven academic fraud. [Oh, What a Tangled Web She Weaves]

Landolt rigidly followed McCormick’s aberrant policies. Despite state and federal laws, she knowingly destroyed careers then deprived her victims of due process of law. Attorney General Gregoire must request Governor Locke to immediately appoint an independent investigator to inquire into corruption by both Landolt and McCormick that interim president Lee L. Huntsman condoned. Then state officials must comply with law by arranging for indictment of named conspirators and co-conspirators despite Landolt having cheated jail by her death. [Alleged Conspirators: Maximum Punishment]

These individuals have clearly and deliberately participated in unlawful activities. They have consistently deprived both students and faculty of their civil rights and due process which has resulted in deprivation of their livelihood. They have frustrated investigating authorities with deliberate lies and refusal of access to public records. They will probably follow Landolt to a warmer clime.

Only an independent investigator can fairly examine the voluminous documents that will prove these contentions. Attorney General Christine Gregoire must follow the suggestions that Governor Gary Locke made several years ago. She must arrange for the Superior Court to call a grand jury or petition the Supreme Court for an order appointing a special inquiry judge. In the latter case, the organized crime advisory board, with the consent of the Governor, could name a special prosecutor.

Both Locke and Gregoire must publish specific details of the procedure that they choose to follow. They must prepare a schedule for its implementation with an explanation for their decisions and provide supporting citations for the laws governing them.

The devil looks after his own similar to the way university administrators cover for each other. Consequently, he will not punish Landolt posthumously. However, the State of Washington can right the wrongs Landolt caused in memoriam. Her epitaph should read:

Politically correct comments that criticized the preceding refutation provoked this clarification.

University of Washington flaks published an obituary lauding Landolt as administrator, professor, and person. They ignored her criminal activity as dean. As a result of their dissemination, Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and other newspapers repeated university propaganda.

The refutation contained nothing about her professorial credentials or her personal relationships with individuals because they had no relevance to her behavior as dean. Moreover, it contained nothing that she did not know from published material sent to her while she lived. It merely strengthened arguments and complaints previously made about her to Governor Locke and Attorney General Gregoire over a five-year period.

While she lived, Landolt should have addressed the injustices brought to her attention instead of indulging in bribery, forgery, and denial of due process of law by using kangaroo courts to cover up unlawful activity. Then her obituary would not construe as absolute hypocrisy and would not need refutation.

Frequently, good research professors become corrupt and incompetent administrators. The attraction of doubled salary, double-dipping pensions, and obscene benefits with a built-in bolt-hole resulting from retained professorial tenure brings out the worst in them. They become avaricious and ruthless to the detriment of their former colleagues and students. This duplicity creates a dangerous conflict of interest with impunity.

Business ethics greatly contrast with unethical behavior in the academe. Corporations demand personal accountability that the academe lacks. Self-regulation by university administrators with professorial tenure amounts to no regulation at all. The dual role engenders blatant conflict of interest. It undermines the whole concept of academic freedom and the protection afforded by academic tenure.

Tenure becomes a means to provide job security without accountability, usually at the taxpayer's expense. Nowhere else can incompetent individuals receive high executive salaries then retreat to a tenured bolt-hole anytime and for any reason. Landolt took full advantage of the situation to disadvantage others for her own political purposes.

University of Washington flaks could better spend their time and taxpayer funds addressing the issues. The university needs to reverse Landolt’s monstrous administrative decisions and to mitigate the damage she caused to her victims instead of allowing its employees to publish posthumous schlock.